


5 times Skye met Clint Barton and 1 time Daisy Johnson met Hawkeye

by slightlygaylemur



Series: Agents of SHIELD AUs [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Child Abuse, Circus Performer Clint Barton, Foster Care, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Skye | Daisy Johnson, Protective Clint Barton, Skye | Daisy Johnson Needs a Hug, the carson circus of travelling wonders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 23:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14556345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlygaylemur/pseuds/slightlygaylemur
Summary: The first time she meets him she's Mary Sue Poots. Then she's Skye. Then she's Daisy.The story of Clint Barton and Mary Sue Poots, from orphans to superheroes, and the meetings they have along the way.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: For the purpose of this fic Hawkeye is 34 in Age of Ultron rather than 47 so the age difference is small enough to be realistic as kids

1

Mary Sue Poots is 7 years old the first time she meets Clint Barton. He’s staying with the Mulfords, a young couple set to be the latest on the growing list of foster parents who don’t want her.

Her caseworker knocks on the wooden door of a small brick house. The neighbourhood is quiet and picturesque, complete with matching picket fences – by all accounts the picture perfect American dream. But Mary has learned far too many times how easily a pretty façade can hold terrible people. A tall blonde woman opens the door, her smile sickly sweet, and offers her hand.

“You must be Mary, wonderful to meet you. I’m Helen.” Mary smiles politely and shakes it, doing her best to seem like the perfect obedient child. Maybe these people would be nice, would finally keep her.

“Come in,” She opens the door wider, leading them into a spotless living room. “We already have one other child, a foster like you. I think you’ll get along well.”

Mary’s heart sinks. Other kids always mean hatred. It’s their family first, and most ‘siblings’ use violence to prove it. This was going to be awful. She follows Helen obediently into the next room, where a skittish blonde boy is waiting. He’s a little taller than her, but obviously a few years older.

"This is Clinton.” The boy looks up at his name, smiling nervously at Mary.

“Hi.” He says, his smile scared but welcoming. Mary waves politely back, hoping that he will be nice and the adults begin to talk, dismissing the children.

“Why don’t you show Mary to your room, Clint, while I talk to her social worker.” Helen turns back to them and says as an afterthought

Clint leads Mary through to the back of the house and opens the door to a small room. There are two identical beds on either side, both neatly made. The only sign that Clint sleeps in one is the tattered duffle bag at the end of the left bed.

“Hi, I’m Clint Barton. I’m 14. This is where we sleep,” He says with a welcoming smile. “You take that bed. You have to make it every morning, and make sure you don’t leave anything on the floor. Mr. Mulford likes everything clean, and he gets angry when it isn’t.” His confident façade fades a little. “You don’t want to make him angry."

The Mulfords weren’t the worst family Mary had been with. There was always food and toys to play with. But Mr. Mulford was mean when he was drunk, and he was drunk a lot. The house had to be spotless, a sock on the floor could mean a punch in the face.

Mary spent her nights curled up in Clint’s arms, protecting her from the screaming in the living room. They grew as close as siblings, and while Mary wasn’t sad about the Mulfords arrest, she missed her brother.


	2. 2

2

The second time they meet is at an orphanage in Kansas. As far as orphanages go, it’s not terrible – there’s food and beds, and the people who run it are nice enough. But they’re also nice to the kids who hurt her. They turn a blind eye to her teasing, and nine-year-old Mary resorts to hiding out in the trees where they can’t see her.

The third time she climbs one is when she meets him again. Mary has one foot on a high branch, pulling herself up, when she realises she isn’t alone. “Mary?” A familiar voice calls out from further up the tall oak. She looks up and grins when she sees Barton staring up at her. 

“Clint!” she exclaims, scrambling to reach him. He holds out his arm and pulls her up. He pulls her in and hugs her, relieved to see her again unharmed. They talk for hours, catching each other up on the two years that have passed. 

Clint is sixteen now, and ready to run away, too impatient to wait to age out of the system. Mary is unloved and insecure, abandonment issues already taking root. 

They make the oak tree their home, hiding away in the leafy branches. They become siblings again. Clint teaches Mary how to get to the higher branches and she takes to them like a monkey, climbing higher and higher with every chance she gets. Clint jokes that if she spends any more time up in those branches she’ll become part of the sky. 

Like all good things Mary has it ends – she gets sent to the next home and he runs away. But years in the future when she gets a chance to reinvent herself, to pick her own name, she chooses Skye to remember those moments. A tribute to a brother she thinks she’ll never see again.


	3. 3

3

AN: I’m not including Barney in this, mainly because I haven’t read the comics and am therefore going of Wikipedia for Hawkeye’s backstory, but also because he doesn’t fit in the orphanage storyline. On a similar note, if I mess up another part of his backstory, or you think he (or anyone else) is out of character **tell me**. Thanks 

_A year later Mary is living with the Brodys in Texas. She likes them – they’re nice, they have a big house, and seem to like her. Mary calls them mom and dad in her head, but she never dares to say it out loud. Nothing this good ever lasts._

Mrs Brody drops her off at the circus one day, handing her money and making her promise to back in that spot in four hours. Mary begins to explore. She’s never been to the circus before, and the sights overwhelm her. Every way she looks is a new surprise, and for once the bustling crowds seem welcoming rather than scary. 

She pays 10 dollars for a ticket reading _The Carson Carnival of Travelling Wonders_ in fancy gold letters, and skips excitedly through the arched gates.

After an hour of wandering around taking in the sights Mary wanders through a row of sideshow tents. She rounds a corner, looking up at the sky, and walks straight into a firm chest.

“Clint?”

“Mary Sue?” 

They spend the day as siblings again, ecstatic to see each other even if it’s only a few hours. Clint is 17 now, working as an archer in the circus. He’s overworked under Trickshot’s watchful eye, but manages to bargain for the day off, promising to be back before he had to perform. Clint leads Mary around the showground. He uses his circus knowledge to teach her to beat the rigged games, and shows off his newfound perfect aim to win her a stuffed elephant. It’s nicest thing anyone has done for her in a long time.

“You find new fosters?” Clint asks, leaning forward to aim a ring onto rows of identical bottles. His tone is casual, but Mary can see the concern in his eyes when he turns to look at her. 

“Yeah, The Brodys.” She says looking down. At his prompting look she continues. “They’re nice, I think they like me. They don’t get angry very often, and even when they do, they don’t hurt me.” She smiles hopefully. “Maybe they’re gonna keep me”

Clint smiles fondly down at her. “Of course they will Mary.” He says, nudging her softly. “Who wouldn’t?”

Mary grins back, but she doesn’t quite believe him. Sensing her change in mood, Clint wraps his arm around her shoulders, his huge arms dwarfing her tiny frame, and steers her towards the next event, watching happily as her ecstatic grin returns.

Time flies by, and too soon they have to leave, Clint heading to the tent to perform, and Mary walking back to meet Mrs Brody. Clint pulls her into a hug, promising to see her again. 

“You’re going to do great things someday Mary” He says, holding her tight, and as she looks up into his eyes, trusting the boy she considers a brother, for the first time she believes him.

The nuns take the elephant when she returns to Saint Agnes, but she keeps the ticket tucked away in her box of treasured possessions. Every now and then, when things get bad, the Brodys send her back, the next foster father who punches even harder than the last, she takes the box out and thinks of the only person she has left. His confidence is the only thing that keeps her fighting. 


	4. 4

It's a very long time before their next meeting, six lonely years that Mary fights her way through alone. 

She spends those years digging for answers. She tries the orphanage records first, bribing Taylor to faint during chapel so she can sneak into the office. The file tells her nothing useful, just a baby left on the doorstep with a blanket, not even named. But Mary has always been a fighter, and a setback like that doesn’t stop her. 

Mary gets smarter, searches harder. The Robertson’s have a clunky PC they let her play on, and she spends the next six months learning as much as she can. Mary’s always been a fast learner, and with a goal as important as this, she thrives. By the time she’s 13 she can hack strangers’ laptops from library computers. She changes all the banners on her school website and gets sent back again. 

She leaves the orphanage when she’s 14, stealing a van and running as fast and as far as she can. The nuns don’t care enough to follow her. They alert the police, but nothing happens. She just becomes another lost orphan that no one cares about. 

This time it’s different. She finds friends, people who want answers as much as she does. They teach her more, where to look, not just how. They become a family, united by a common goal – freedom of information. 

They become the rising tide. 

For the first time in her life she feels like she belongs somewhere. Here she doesn’t have to be the perfect child, sucking up to her foster parents in the hopes that maybe they’ll love her. She becomes Skye, and life’s not perfect, but she’s happy. 

Skye doesn’t expect to see Clint again, but they meet, as they always do, in an unexpected place. A park in Brooklyn, in the drizzling rain. 

Mary has her head down, tucked into her threadbare coat, hoping to get back to her van before the rain picks up. She jogs hurriedly across the grass and crashes headfirst into a tall figure. 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there” Skye is already moving as she apologises, in a hurry to beat the rain. The man lifts his head, his grey hood falling back to reveal- “Clint?” 

A smile lights up his stubble covered face. “Mary! It’s been years, how are you doing?” 

“It’s Skye now, and alright actually, how are you?” 

It’s been six years since they’ve seen each other, but a bond like that is unbreakable. They move to a café to talk out of the rain and recount the years that they’ve missed. They’re both hiding something though. Skye avoids all mention of the Rising Tide and Clint knows she won’t approve of SHIELD – she’s never been one for authority figures. 

It’s a short meeting but they vow to keep in touch, and this time they do. It’s irregular of course, neither of their jobs are conducive to regular communication, but they do their best. They lead different lives now, but they’re still family. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry for taking so long guys, I lost motivation for a bit but school is back and I’m ready to procrastinate by writing again. As I’ve said before, if you have any criticisms, however mean they seem, please tell me. I need to know, or I won’t improve. Also, sorry about location inaccuracies, I’m Australian and know nothing about American geography. Thanks everyone for commenting, sorry if I haven’t replied yet! 


End file.
